With the opening of the first part of the High Line (rendering above) anticipated for next month, now's a good time to revisit the 6-minute video produced in 2006 that describes the floating platform from goods deliverer to ghost town to pie in the sky to great gift.

Altered by Julie Farris and Sarah Wayland-Smith

If you're near the courts downtown beginning May 27th, check out A Clearing in the Street by Farris and Wayland-Smith. In Collect Pond Park, they'll install (with an assist from the Public Art Fund), a "ten-sided plywood structure that houses a small meadow, fifteen feet in diameter, offset by a panoramic interior mural of a vast blue sky." You can peek into it through October to watch the environment within develop from planted seedlings. It's a reminder of the long-gone natural freshwater pond and surroundings, where New Yorkers once loved to picnic.

Altered by Ernesto Neto

An epic installation is how the Park Avenue Armory describes Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto's anthropodino and that's about right. Wade Thompson Drill Hall gets an unaccustomed dressing up in translucent material, 'aromatic fabric stalactites', and a welcome megadose of wonder. Through June 14th. Admission $10.

Altered by Tim Simmons

British photographer Ted Simmons takes familiar landscapes around the world – a rock quarry, a path in Scotland's woods, a swamp at night – and makes each one fraught. The scenes are familiar yet strange, skewed by not-quite-familiar light, both barren and filled with secrets. Even a full coating of snow looks engorged, warning away any humans who would be foolish enough to insert themselves.

Altered by Lincoln Center

Not your father's Lincoln Center. The iconic newcomer may be turn out to be the sloping roof lawn – when it arrives it should provide a warming vibe to the environs and a novel notion: a Lincoln Center hangout. While the full Diller Scofidio + Renfro renovation won't be completed until 2011, there's lots of special programming to celebrate this 50th anniversary of the Center itself.

Altered by Maya Lin

An hour or so north, in Mountainville, the Storm King sculpture center has undergone a sea change with Maya Lin's new work called Storm King Wavefield. Set on 11 acres that were transformed from a gravel pit, Ms. Lin's permanent landscape installation suggests large undulating ocean waves set among the gentle hills of the Hudson Valley. We can't wait to walk in it.